# Museum exhibits for real? JFK's blood stains? Hitler's comb? Piece of the True Cross??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 28, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792 "2014-10-28T20:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/41 "2014-10-30T13:29:56Z")
Either the museum is playing fast and loose with its marketing of having the true cross or the OP is doing so(I suspect the latter though I could be wrong). No matter if you believe such an artifact to be true, many such artifacts were claimed to be of the true cross. This has been going on since at least medieval times. These “artifacts” in themselves are of interest, no matter if they are from the true cross or not. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/42 "2014-10-30T13:31:13Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > It’s been pretty well attested that they were never claiming that the “true cross” really was the true cross Jesus was on. I’ve been to the same museum and if it had had a plaque saying “this is the cross Jesus was on,” I wouldn’t have been able to get it for all the believers besieging me. It’s just a relic - something that, in the middle ages, was considered to be from Jesus or the apostles. Its continued existence since then is what lends it value. People worshipped at this thing for a long time, and it still exists. > > The other stuff you mention can be confirmed or not by DNA tests or at least by early photographs with those items in them, or other historical provenances. They don’t just make things up. Thank you. I should have read this before posting. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/43 "2014-10-30T15:16:52Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > "Wait a minute. His name wasn’t spelled Pilot, was it? ":dubious: No. That was a nickname he picked up because he always used a [Pilot pen](http://www.levimage.com/IMAGE/Web/Product/Pen_Ink/Pens/AP13030_PILOT-FRIXION-ERASABLE-GEL-PEN-SET_s1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/44 "2014-10-30T18:59:54Z")
Goint back to the OP, most of the Hitler stuff is at least credible - the US troopers who raided the Eagle’s Nest notoriously descended upon it like a flight of magpies, not really looking for loot per se but souvenirs and “I was there” tokens were in very high demand. So I can totally see some G.I. bringing home “Hitler’s comb” or whatever (with the caveat that they probably also just brought back whatever happened to be lying around in there and dubbed it “Hitler’s”). The “upholstery with suicide blood” item is a lot more questionable - AFAIK nobody but the Soviets got access to the bunker in the first place, they destroyed it very soon after the war (and vanished Hitler’s body), and in any event Hitler wasn’t the only guy who topped himself in there - how would they know the blood was specifically his ? I suppose it’s _possible_ a Soviet trooper picked that up, then the bit of upholstery somehow found itself in a US museum sixty years later… but colour me very dubious. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/45 "2014-10-30T22:32:08Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > No. That was a nickname he picked up because he always used a [Pilot pen](http://www.levimage.com/IMAGE/Web/Product/Pen_Ink/Pens/AP13030_PILOT-FRIXION-ERASABLE-GEL-PEN-SET_s1.jpg). Wow, you learn something new everyday. I thought it was the Latin spelling. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/46 "2014-11-01T20:36:42Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Secular historians are almost universally in agreement that there was a real, historical person named Yeshua (which becomes “Jesus” after you translate it into English through Latin and Greek) who was baptized by John and crucified by the Romans. If by “secular” you mean “mostly Western Christian sources being cited by other Christians”. Later you say the Wikipedia article is nice but too short, but by that I am sure you just meant “it agrees with me so I like it.” There’s a major amount of systemic bias displayed by the editors of that page (and most of their articles about Christianity) which they don’t even try to hide. There’s another thread for it though where that all should be discussed, but since you brought it up here a short response here would be appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/47 "2014-11-01T20:40:45Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > (with the caveat that they probably also just brought back whatever happened to be lying around in there and dubbed it “Hitler’s”) “It was in Europe at the end of the war, Germany had conquered most of the countries, Hitler was ultimately in charge, so, yes, it was Hitler’s pin cushion.” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/48 "2014-11-01T20:43:13Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > There’s probably a joke to be made about how many Holy Foreskins there are and how large baby Jesus was if they were all real, but I can’t figure out how to phrase it. …“So he said, ‘When you rub it, it turns into a suitcase!’” Set-up supplied on request. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792/49 "2014-11-01T21:36:53Z")
and of course there are those that believe they have Adam and Eve’s original sin [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-exhibits-for-real-jfks-blood-stains-hitlers-comb-piece-of-the-true-cross/702792.md?page=2)